a/n: Ok, wow. I seriously am impressed. 10 reveiws? You guys are freaking amazing!
I was gonna update twice yesterday but I went out with some friends pretty much all day and night, so I'll try and update twice today.
Jude woke up in a very different place than where she had passed out. Looking around she saw she was in a very cramped hospital room with a sink, a small TV, multiple chairs (which were filled with people), a small window, and a door to the hospital hallway. She surveyed the residents of the chair, all of which were asleep, and saw her mom, Georgia, Sadie, and Tommy. She looked around saw on the clock that it was two. From the fact that she could see the moon in her window and everyone in the room was sleeping, she figured it was two in the morning.
Suddenly, as Jude tried to sit up, a pain like no other shot through her skull and sent her into a frenzy. She moaned and fell back into the bed shaking in torment.
Sadie and her mom didn't budge; they were dead sleepers like Jude. Georgia stirred slightly, but it was only Tommy who awoke. He kneeled down next to the bed and took Jude's hand.
"Shhh." He looked at her concerned. Tommy glanced around and saw the clock. He smiled sadly. "Merry Christmas, Harrison."
It's Christmas and I'm in a hospital with Tommy. I should be mad at Tommy. After all he put me through and he thinks he can be nice to me. But then again, he broke up with his fiancé just so he would have a chance with me. Then I got hit when I was listening in on his and Joanne's fight and when Joanne opened the door… "A door did this to me?" Jude pointed at her head.
"Yeah, and a ring did this to me." Tommy brushed back a bit of his abnormally messy hair to reveal a large white bandage that stretched from his temple to the middle of his forehead. "Never underestimate the strength of a little Italian woman when angered."
Jude laughed and immediately regretted it when a surge went through her entire upper half. "So what exactly is my damage?"
"They told us you broke your nose, split your skull a little, and got a concussion. You woke up when they were stitching you up and gave you some sedatives, hence the 2 am wake up call."
She almost nodded, then remembered how much it would hurt, and decided against it. "Where's Damien?" She asked casually.
Tommy grew curious. First Damien insisting he stayed, then Jude asking him where he was; he wanted to know what was going on between those two. "Georgia made him go home, she needs him recording tomorrow."
Jude's eyes wondered over to Georgia. "Why didn't she go home too?"
"Believe or not Jude," He smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "Everyone at G Major really cares about you."
She smiled and flushed a little.
"You should go back to sleep."
Jude laughed painfully. "I've been 'sleeping' for nine hours. I'm pretty wide awake."
"They can always bring in more sedatives." Tommy smiled mischievously.
"And leave you alone with my unconscious body? I don't think so, Quincy." Jude smiled, but that hurt some too. "God, don't they give out painkillers around here?"
Tommy chuckled and stood up. "Let me go ask somebody." He walked out of the room and left Jude in silence.
Why is he being so sweet? I can't fall for him; I have Damien now. He's amazing and I don't need Tommy. I don't need his perfect hair, chiseled abs, dreamy smile, deep blue eyes, and… and… what am I thinking? I can't think about Tommy! Jude sighed and clutched her head.
"That bad, eh?" Tommy returned with a nurse trailing.
Jude just smiled self-consciously. He can't hear my thoughts, thank god!
The nurse walked over to the IV stand and injected some translucent fluid into it. Jude felt her veins run cold for a moment and then it subsided.
"Just press that red button if you need anything else." The nurse said pleasantly before exiting the room and shutting the door.
Tommy sat on the edge of Jude's bed and studied her face. He looked as though he was trying to extricate some sort of information that was buried deep into her mind's graveyard.
"What?" She asked him in a whisper.
"What do you have with him?" Tommy asked in an equally quiet voice.
Jude knew immediately he was talking about Damien. "I don't know." She murmured. "Something."
Tommy was getting closer and closer to Jude and all she wanted to do was back away. She wasn't going mess up what she had with Damien just because Tommy was on a peak of another one of his cycles.
"So you heard everything?" He asked even though he knew the answer.
"Pretty much." Jude was seriously uncomfortable now. Tommy was too close and had that look in his eyes that Jude knew oh so well from her sixteenth and seventeenth birthday parties.
"I meant everything I said. No more lies, Jude."
Jude felt his shallow breaths and tingle sailed down her spine. "Tommy, I can't." She breathed.
He backed away with a look of disappointment plastered all over his face. After a moment of gaze exchanges Tommy scratched his head and sighed. "Go back to sleep, girl."
She frowned and closed her eyes reluctantly. To Jude's surprise, she was asleep but five minutes later.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jude bolted up in a cold sweat. Her nerves cried out in pain and she let out a low moan.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
She looked beside her and realized she was no longer in her hospital room, but in her own apartment. On her bedside table the clock read seven-o-clock.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jude rubbed her head and felt the stitches around her temple and the large bandage plastered over her nose. She rose and walked towards the door.
Behind the door revealed a smiling Tommy with Kwest at his side and Sadie behind him.
"What day is it?" She asked quietly.
The three entered. Sadie and Kwest settled on Jude's green velvet couch and Tommy stood beside her.
"Christmas." He smiled at her warmly.
"But I was just at the hospital 5 hours ago…" Jude looked at Tommy in confusion, then at Kwest, then at Sadie.
"No, you were at the hospital 17 hours ago. Around noon you were still passed out but doctors said we could wake you up and take you home if we wanted to. So me and Tommy and mom tried to wake you up for about an hour but you wouldn't. Georgia left and told us to call when you woke up. We got impatient and uncomfortable, and since the doctors said you would be find, we just let you sleep here." Sadie told her the story as if she was a librarian reading to kindergarteners.
"I've been out for 17 hours?" Jude asked her disbelievingly.
"Told ya you needed more sleep." Tommy placed a hand on her shoulder and chuckled jokingly.
Jude punched him weakly and collapsed onto her loveseat. "I'm beat." She sighed.
Tommy settled beside her. "Same." He stretched out and yawned.
"The doctors said you could take that," Kwest pointed to Jude's covered nose, "off when you're awake."
Jude nodded and carefully removed it, setting it aside on the coffee table beside her. "Don't you guys have anything better to do on Christmas?" She asked them with a questioning stare.
The three threw glances around to one-another and shrugged.
"Nope." Kwest grinned and everybody laughed.
"I'm tired of all the college parties, anyways." Sadie said. Jude surveyed her sister and realized she hadn't actually seen her sister in almost a year. Sadie looked the same, but she had bags under her eyes and her makeup was unusually casual.
The group fell into friendly conversation and laughter. Jude pulled her sister aside to ask her how college life was going. She learned that Sadie was single and not exactly looking. Jude felt horribly when she realized she hadn't bought Sadie anything for Christmas, but Sadie hadn't bought Jude anything either; she was broke from all her college expenses.
After hours of chit chat Sadie said she needed to get going to work on an essay. Since Kwest was her ride, he had to leave too. They bid their goodbyes and Merry Christmas's and Jude was left with Tommy alone.
"Why didn't you ride with them?" Jude asked him as she heard Kwest and Sadie pull away.
"Because I have... ah… something I needed to bring in my trunk." A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "I'll be right back."
Jude stared incredulously at Tommy's retreated back. Within a few minutes he was back and carried a guitar case with him.
"For your Christmas present, I give you something you'll never let me live down." Tommy unbuckled the case to reveal a guitar and a suspicious looking bandana.
Jude slowly began to smile. What is that nutcase doing? She asked herself.
Tommy tied the bandana around his head in that old style that he used to have during his boybander days. He turned down the lights and picked up the guitar. With clever movement he scooted everything in Jude's living room away so that it was just Jude in the loveseat and Tommy standing in front of her.
"I give you," He grinned and began to play a familiar tune, "Boyz Attack."
As soon as Jude heard it she started to crack up. Thankfully she had taken painkillers while Sadie and Kwest were still there.
Tommy began to dance around with the guitar in his hands. He did all the signature Boyz Attack moves and played the same time, which was rather impressive.
Jude was seized by laughter and Tommy hadn't even begun to sing yet.
"I was adrift
On an ocean all alone
You came and rescued me
When I was far from home"
Tears streamed down Jude's face. She hadn't laughed this hard since… well, since she could even remember.
"A rush of love around my heart
Just as I fell apart
Nobody ever cared as much for me
Nobody's touched my heart and healed my pain
You've picked up the pieces
And put me back together again"
Jude could even tell that Tommy was enjoying himself. It was incredible and she could not stop cracking up.
"Careful, we're fragile
And easily we break
In your arms I'm certain
Is all the love we'll make
A rush of love around my heart
Just as you take my hand"
Jude's laughing was not hysterical anymore, but she still couldn't stifle it. Tommy then dropped the guitar and pulled Jude up with him. He was humming the tune now and Jude joined in. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into the routine.
"Nobody ever cared as much for me
Nobody's touched my heart and healed my pain
You've picked up the pieces
And put me back together
I'll write your name in stars across the sky
We'll drift away into each other's eyes
Yeah"
Jude was pressed up against him and singing along now. Tommy sang straight into her, almost whispering because her face was only inches away.
"Nobody ever cared as much for me
Nobody's touched my heart and healed my pain"
Tommy smiled down on Jude and held her closer as their singing came to an end.
"You've picked up the pieces"
Their bodies were warm against each other. A trickle of urges went through both their minds.
"And put me back together again"
Before Jude could realize what was happening, pull away, or say no, she found her lips meeting Tommy's without recognition as to who started the kiss and who was kissing the other back. Jude's arms slithered up around his neck and pulled herself deeper. Tommy let his doubts go to hell. His passion fired his gasping mouth to pull at Jude's lips and bring them onto the couch entwined.
After minutes Jude had to break free. She couldn't breath and she had completely lost all train of thought. Not to mention she bumped her nose a few times, which caused her excruciating pain despite the painkillers.
"Tommy!" She shouted and shot off the couch.
He looked confused and slowly sat up to look at her.
"I can't do this, you know I can't. Not now." Jude started tearing at her hair in frustration.
Tommy sat speechless. He felt indescribable; kind of like a kid whose parents forgot to pick him up from soccer practice, so he had to take a three-hour walk home in the rain.
"Just…" Jude looked at him with despair. "Just leave, Tommy."
He returned her despairing gaze and didn't budge. After a few minutes Tommy stood up and put his guitar back into its case. He tossed the bandana back and Jude and she caught it with one hand.
Tommy stopped in the doorframe and spoke one last time. "Merry Christmas, Jude." And he was gone.
Jude locked her door and listened to Tommy's Viper start up and speed away. Jude replaced the bandage on her nose, crawled up to her bedroom, and slumped into bed. "Merry Christmas…" She murmured before falling into a fitful slumber.